2 Corinthians 2 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

1
But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to
you in heaviness.

2
For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me
glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?

3
And I wrote this same unto
you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to
rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you
all.

4
For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you
with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the
love which I have more abundantly unto you.

5
But if any have caused
grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you
all.

6
Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was
inflicted of many.

7
So that contrariwise ye ought rather to
forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should
be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

8
Wherefore I beseech you that ye
would confirm your love toward him.

9
For to this end also did I
write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all
things.

10
To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I
forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I
it in the person of Christ;

11
Lest Satan should get an advantage of
us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

12
Furthermore, when I came to
Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the
Lord,

13
I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother:
but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.

14
Now
thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and
maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

15
For
we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them
that perish:

"We are unto God
a sweet savour."
Saved people smell good to God.
"In them that perish"Does hell exist?

The sweet savour is in Christ. The reference is to the
Old Testament practice of anointing priests. As Joohn Gill explains:

Here a reason is given, why the savour of the knowledge of God
in Christ is made manifest by the ministers of the Gospel, because
they themselves are a sweet savour; not that they are so in
themselves, for they have the same corrupt hearts and natures, and
complain of them as other men; but as having the gifts and graces of
the Spirit of God, comparable to fragrant and sweet smelling
ointments, Song. 1:3, by which they
are enabled to preach the savoury doctrines of the Gospel, and to
adorn and recommend them by their exemplary lives and conversations:
the allusion is to Aaron and the priests under the law, who were
anointed with the anointing oil, which was poured upon their heads,
ran down upon their beards, and descended to the skirts of their
garments, so that they were all over a perfume, a sweet smell and
savour

The word perish does not mean the end of existence, but
it implies an eternal existence in hell.

16
To the one we are the savour of death unto death;
and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient
for these things?

17
For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of
God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in
Christ.